YOGA: Foundation Year (60hrs) with the inner yoga trust to deepen my practice as a therapist."This is Scaravelli inspired yoga, which feels like gestalt in action, practising is very much about working with the parts of the body, preparing them for a full posture, which does not occur through force but through contact with the whole - it is therefore effortless when it occurs.

Gestalt therapy and Organisational Consultancy is similar - we work with the parts of the self or organisation preparing them for integration of the whole brain self or organisation. It is effortless when it occurs and therefore has long lasting results." (Cathie O'Brien)

Availability and Prices for Psychotherapy and Individual Supervision :Please see my profile on www.counselling-directory.org.ukunder SO31 8EQ

Presentations and Published Articles written in the below Journals

BACP CPD Event Children, young people and families: 'working with difficult behaviour.' Event held in Belfast on 12/09/2017. Cathie O’Brien will be delivering training on a whole service approach to emotion regulation. She will be looking in depth at the 4 stages of contact in gestalt therapy and linking this with the process of attachment and separation in attachment theory. There will be particular emphasis on working with sensations and the adaptive function. She links this with Bowlby’s Control Systems Theory, Siegel’s Window of Tolerance and Gestalt Therapies Contact Boundary - developing greater understanding of how we, as practitioners, can unconsciously activate a young person’s nervous system / attachment behaviour system, which can lead to self-harming behaviours and how to manage this at both an individual, organisational and multi-agency level, reducing risk. Copyright 2011.

Self, Other and The We - BACP CYP Journal March 2017. Cathie O’Brien uses Whole Brain Training (Which includes practical and experiential activities) with young people who have suffered interpersonal trauma – in an intervention based on Gestalt Therapy Theory that focuses on sensation, the adaptive function, and the whole system.Cathie Obrien BACP CYP March 2017.pdf (191.08KB)

Self, Other and The We - BACP CYP Journal March 2017. Cathie O’Brien uses Whole Brain Training (Which includes practical and experiential activities) with young people who have suffered interpersonal trauma – in an intervention based on Gestalt Therapy Theory that focuses on sensation, the adaptive function, and the whole system.

Key words: The Cycle of Awareness/Self-regulation, Sensations, Adaptive Function, The We - A Whole Service/Systems Approach, The Contact Boundary, The Window Of Tolerance, Control Systems Theory, Presence and Intention.

Disorganised and in Care March 2013Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis. The Bowlby Centre. Karnac. March 2013. First published in the BACP CYP Dec 2011PDF Published Article Attachment Journal.pdf (213.93KB)

Disorganised and in Care March 2013Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis. The Bowlby Centre. Karnac. March 2013. First published in the BACP CYP Dec 2011

Disorganised and in Care - BACP CYP Journal Dec 2011Cathie O'Brien offers a model of work for children in care that involves integrating the process of contact and withdrawal – namely, self-regulation in Gestalt therapy – with the process of attachment and separation in attachment theory. She uses this concept to consider environmental factors, inform assessment and undertake a whole-service approach to therapeutic interventions.O'Brien CCYP Dec 11.pdf (161.44KB)

Disorganised and in Care - BACP CYP Journal Dec 2011Cathie O'Brien offers a model of work for children in care that involves integrating the process of contact and withdrawal – namely, self-regulation in Gestalt therapy – with the process of attachment and separation in attachment theory. She uses this concept to consider environmental factors, inform assessment and undertake a whole-service approach to therapeutic interventions.

BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering) requested permission to use the above article in their training settings.

MADissertation Topic:

Integrating Gestalt Therapy and Attachment Theory:Towards the development of a therapeutic model, for safe practice with Children in Care who display disorganised patterns of attachment.

Abstract: This dissertation draws together Gestalt Therapy and Attachment Theory and takes an in depth look at the processes of contact and withdrawal/attachment and separation in order to compare their similarities. Particular attention is given to the organism/environment/field in both theories. This is in an effort to develop an assessment tool which considers both the contact style and the attachment style of a young person, showing the importance of the environment on the developing personality and working safely at the contact boundary within a complex system.